It’s the end of the line for Roadrunner, a first-of-its-kind collection of processors that once reigned as the world’s fastest supercomputer. The $121 million supercomputer, housed at one of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons research laboratories in northern New Mexico, will be decommissioned Sunday. The reason? The world of supercomputing is evolving and Roadrunner has […]
Artificial intelligence
Kickstarter of the Week: OUYA!
Just 8 hours and 22 minutes into its Kickstarter campaign, and OUYA had already raised $1 million, surpassing its goal of $950,000. Ending its first day with nearly $2.6 million, the company set the record for the biggest one day raise on the crowd sourcing website, Kickstarter.com. OUYA was founded in 2012 by Julie Uhrman, […]
The Race to Rule the Wearable Gadget Market
The first wave of wearable tech is already here: fitness devices like NikeFuel band have set the stage for a burgeoning business. But with Google launching computer glasses and Apple believed to be developing a smart watch, these devices are poised to surpass smartphones over the next decade.
Massive Cyberattack Hits Internet Users
Internet users around the globe are facing slowed-down service, thanks to what’s being called the biggest cyberattack in history. The prolonged denial-of-service assault is targeting The Spamhaus Project, a European spam-fighting group that has gone after CyberBunker. Security experts say the attack uses more sophisticated techniques than most DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks and […]
Record-Breaking Cyberattack Hits Anti-Spam Group
A record-breaking cyberattack targeting an anti-spam watchdog group has sent ripples of disruption coursing across the Web, experts said Wednesday. Spamhaus, a site responsible for keeping ads for counterfeit Viagra and bogus weight-loss pills out of the world’s inboxes, said it had been buffeted by the monster denial-of-service attack since mid-March, apparently from groups angry […]
New Solar-Cell Design Based on Dots and Wires
Using exotic particles called quantum dots as the basis for a photovoltaic cell is not a new idea, but attempts to make such devices have not yet achieved sufficiently high efficiency in converting sunlight to power. A new wrinkle added by a team of researchers at MIT — embedding the quantum dots within a forest […]
HotSpot Episode 5: Robo Cloud
This week on WDD’s HotSpot, integrated networking architecture for ZigBee-base Smart Home applications, data-processing functions for robots in the cloud, helping parents keep track of their children, and analyzing blood from within the body. For more information visit www.wirelessdesignmag.com.
Techie Fired After Tweeting About Men’s Comments
A female developer was fired after tweeting about a group of men she said were making sexual comments at a computer programming conference, fueling an already vigorous debate about gender equality and culture in Silicon Valley. Adria Richards wrote on her blog at https://butyoureagirl.com that she was seated in a ballroom at the Santa Clara […]
A Fireside Chat: FCT Assembly’s Tony Lentz
FCT Assembly consists of three divisions: FCT Solder, Fine Line Stencil and A-Laser. FCT has numerous facilities in the United States manufacturing lead-free and leaded solder products, stencils and precision cut parts. Here we catch up with Tony Lentz, the company’s newest field application engineer, to find out about his promotion to Field Application Engineer. […]
Fingernail Display Technology for Future Touch Screens
Researchers in Taiwan are developing a remote control system that will turn finger-nails into mini-display screens. Using wirelessly-enabled, light emitting diodes, the team says the technology could revolutionise the way we control and use devices such as smart phones and tablets. Ben Gruber reports.